Quote from Error 404:
Maverick, how many people have (or will have) a tax problem with the "estate tax"?
Do you? I know I won't. I also know that those who have enough assets to worry about it get around it with good estate planning. Mostly insurance.
I don't know what the present rules are. I was a stockbroker out west (and had an insurance license) where a lot of cattle ranchers had a lot of valuable property. According to the law..at that time...estate taxes had to be paid within 90 days. Go try and convert a pasture or a ranch into cash in 90 days!
So what did they do? They bought LIFE INSURANCE which is not taxable. But the death benefit of the insurance CAN be used to pay estate taxes. (And is).
Really, though. Estate taxes affect what percentage of the general population? This is an issue? (Sort of like another 'tax cut" for the wealthiest 1%).
I am happy for you if the estate tax is an issue for you. It never was for me. And if it were.....if I had won big in the gene lottery, and was left a few hundred million $, I don't think I would be all that concerned with estate taxes.
RS
So the guy that started a business 40 years ago, who probably wasn't a winner of the "gene lottery" (what a convenient excuse for failure), but actually worked very hard will have his business liquidated to pay the estate tax and that is not an issue for you. Good for you! Unfortunately, it is an issue for his heirs and employees. Oh damn, forgot about them. Wait he can just buy tons of life insurance to pay the tax. Sorry, most people will get older and sicker and the cost of that much life insurance would be more than the tax! Of course, this simply ignores the fact that even if one could obtain enough insurance and was fortunate enough to die young enough to maintain it, that it is an absolute moral outrage to be forced to give away up to 50% of your wealth that has already been taxed a zillion times. But hey, it won't affect you (directly), so screw 'em!
